“Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Tell me if you saw this coming, ma cherie.”
I withdrew Gabriel’s feather from my back pocket and slammed it into Mulciber’s chest. She screamed in pain, dropping me and crumpling to the floor. I should have demanded that she let Michael down but I didn’t. I just kept digging the feather in deeper and deeper, watching her squirm with relish. She tried to claw at my arms, but I couldn’t even feel the scratches. I wanted her to burn in fires hotter than any Hell. I wanted her to feel every second of pain she had caused me and my mother and Michael and the man I’d never known. Burn, baby, burn.
Her eyes rolled back into her head and that was when I knew she was dead. Her chest was a ruin of black where the feather had burned clear through to the bone, evaporating the space where her heart should have been. I leaned down until my mouth was level with her ear and whispered:
“Vaya con Dios, bitch.”
I tucked the feather back into my pocket and limped over to Michael, who wore a grim expression on his face. I found a stool in the corner and picked up the sickle. I used it to saw through the chains connected to the blood-soaked restraints, talking to distract myself from the horror of what I’d just done.
“What are these things? Why can’t you get free?”
“Demon’s blood. She sacrificed one of her underlings to make them. Demon blood is one of the most powerful substances on earth. Even this body can be trapped by it. Only demons and full-blooded humans can break through the bonds, not angels.”
Finally, I sliced through the second restraint and he fell, leaning his back against the wall for a moment to regain his strength. “How did she manage to trap you?”
“I was told she would meet us in the basement. Just as the elevator doors opened, I felt the presence of an archdemon. That’s when he attacked me from behind with the restraints and Mulciber dragged me down the hall into this room.”
I frowned. “He? Who’s he?”
Michael’s face got very cold. “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”
He slipped his arm around my waist and then closed his eyes, concentrating on something I couldn’t see or hear. A great wind rushed through the room like we were at the center of a hurricane. It blew so hard that the stool in front of me clattered over on its side and went flying. To my surprise, it hit something invisible before finally smacking the far wall. Seconds later, Jacob faded into view with a sullen look on his face.
“That’s not fair!” he cried, glaring at Michael.
I glanced between the two of them with shock. “What’s going on?”
“Jacob isn’t a ghost. He’s a malevolent poltergeist masquerading as a ghost. He was hired by Mulciber and Belial to lure us here,” Michael explained.
My jaw dropped. “But he’s just a kid, I mean…why? Why would you do something like that, Jacob?”
The boy’s face thinned out in anger, making him seem less like a child and more like a monster. “Why? Because human beings are the worst things in this world and in any world!”
“What are you talking about? I don’t see how we could be any more ruthless than the demon you just helped try to murder someone,” I spat.
Jacob’s eyes narrowed. “When I was eight, my father murdered my mother right in front of me. He didn’t care about anyone but himself. I loved her more than anything in the world and he just took her from me like it was nothing! The cops didn’t believe my story so I waited until they all left and killed him in his sleep but it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough for what I lost. I dedicated the rest of my life to getting back at humanity. They put me in foster homes and I killed those parents one after the other and made it seem like someone else did until some stupid housewife got lucky and pushed me down the stairs right before I could off her. My soul didn’t pass over because I still want to cause as much pain and suffering as my father caused me. Does that answer your question?”
Christ. I’d met some pretty horrible people recently but this kid took the cake. That story had gushed out of him like blood, as if he’d been hoping to bring it up because he hated us so much. “So I guess you don’t ever intend to cross over to one world or the other?”
“Not if I can help it,” the poltergeist sneered, reaching for the sickle I’d dropped. Before I could move, Jacob ran at us.
I tensed for a fight, but Michael held out his left hand and spoke one word.
“Enough.”
Jacob stopped only inches from us. Fear widened his eyes as his body began to fade away as if he were made of sand that the wind was blowing away. “W-What’s happening to me?”
“I can’t send you to Hell and I can’t send you to Heaven,” Michael said. “There’s a place for souls who take advantage of their lives after death. It’s called Purgatory.”
Jacob thrashed and shouted curses at us in midair, but eventually his screams died down and he disappeared from sight.